The Outernet: when “trop” could become too much…

It was great for John Havens, Porter Novelli’s Augmented Reality (AR) specialist, and myself to interact with young bright people during a tweet-up at a tradeshow on Social Media (SxSW). The Internet becomes more and more linked with technologies that put it consistently deeper in our real life (so everywhere, really :-)) and becomes the Outernet, closely linked up with the Internet of things. Stuff for intriguing and interesting discussions: as Augmented Reality intersects more and more with Real Life and Semantic Web, how do things like AR affect privacy issues (when image recognition comes into full fruition, is it okay for a stranger to map your face and locate your personal data?), business, (who has the air rights to the Outernet?), and security (Foursquare could give tweeps from the dark side some wonderful information). Even better: What if my phone can track your picture and I know all your details instantaneous, do I even need to remember your name?).

It was great to share thoughts, and drive the debate with this fully connected generation, and interesting to see how divers the different positions on this mobile-sharing lifestyle are. Food for thought, for more debate, and more reflection. People who want to contribute to this conversation can do so on this wiki, and add thoughts on the OGI (the Outernet Guidelines Initiative).

If this sounded like mad gibberish too you: no worries. The fast generation just overtook you on your blind side ;-).